Clee Hill (From Worcester News)

Clee Hill

1:02pm Monday 13th December 2010 in Local walks By Julie Royle

Clee Hill

WITH awesome views and plenty of access land Clee Hill is always going to be popular with walkers.

However, very few venture beyond the common to explore the gorgeous countryside which lies between Clee Hill and Tenbury Wells.

This is partly because footpath maintenance in the area has generally been abysmal but it really is worth making the effort and you should be able to complete this walk easily enough.

If you do encounter difficulties just use the lanes instead; they’re among the quietest and loveliest in the West Midlands.

Bennetts End Inn is a good place for a break, with panoramic views from the garden embracing the Malverns and the Black Mountains.

Hope Bagot is a real gem, with an exquisite little Norman church which is nearly always open to visitors. It has its own holy well and is set among trees and wild flowers in a beautifully tranquil churchyard which is sensitively managed for the benefit of nature.

FACT FILE

Start: Clee Hill Common, by A4117 between Cleobury Mortimer and Ludlow, grid ref SO594753.

Length: Seven miles/11km.

Maps: OS Explorer 203, OS Landranger 138.

Terrain: Pasture, commons, woodland, quiet lanes, mildly hilly in places.

Footpaths: Most are adequate, good or excellent but several are poor. If you intend to deviate from the given route please note that some other paths in the area are currently impassable, and some have disappeared. There are some signs that improvement work has begun but it will take a long time to clear all the obstructions. The Shropshire Way has been improved recently but the waymarking is not always entirely clear so care is required to stay on course.

Stiles: 30.

Parking: Viewpoint/picnic site/car park at western edge of common by Clee Hill village.

Public transport: Bus 294/295/300/303 or train to Kidderminster then 292 Ludlow service to Clee Hill, daily; worcestershire.gov.uk/bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: Pubs, tea rooms, fish and chips and shop at Clee Hill. Pub at Bennetts End.

DIRECTIONS

1 Take the track to the Kremlin Inn, opposite the picnic site. Go through the beer garden then turn left behind the pub on another track. Walk to a junction by a cattle grid and turn right along the former Dhustone incline. As you approach a small settlement the track veers right but keep straight on instead to a bridle gate by a white-painted garage. Proceed to a junction and turn left downhill.

2 Take a bridleway on the right, next to a farm drive. Walk through two fields to the farm, intercept the Shropshire Way and turn left on it. Follow it to the main road then continue almost opposite. Walk to a farmhouse then cross a stile to the right of it. Go across a field to a white-painted house, beyond which point the path is easily followed for a while.

Soon after passing Knowbury church make sure you ignore paths branching right and then left, keeping to the left-hand hedge to stay on course.

3 Turn left in Snitton Lane, leaving the Shropshire Way.

Take a path on the left after 400m, just after Knowbury Hall. Follow it through trees to a junction and take the right-hand path, continuing in the same direction until a waymark directs you to the right. Follow a line of trees across the field then pass a farm and turn right to rejoin Snitton Lane. Turn left and keep straight on at a crossroad, along Hope Bagot Lane.

Keep straight on at the next junction but turn right when you reach Cumberley Lane.

4 Take a path at a stile on the left at Malvern View. Follow waymarks across a field and into trees – the path is hard to find here but the important thing is not to go to the right. Keep on in the same direction, however unlikely it looks, and you’ll soon see a waymark roughly straight ahead.

Once located, the onward path is easily followed to Hope Bagot Lane.

Turn right, then almost immediately right again on another path. Descend steeply through woodland, then along a short passageway seriously overgrown by a leylandii hedge. Cross a driveway and descend through more woodland. Cross a brook at a footbridge, step across a tributary and shortly rejoin Hope Bagot Lane near Bennetts End Inn. Turn right to Hope Bagot.

5 Take a track opposite the church gate. Turn right just before Hope Court Farm House and follow the path to a field. Cross the field to a stile at the far side. Three paths are waymarked here – take the one which crosses a field to the far right corner. Cross a sub-standard stile and turn left in the next field, past two oak trees. Climb over a stile then step over a fallen stile to another field. Go diagonally right to a stile just before a hedge corner.

Follow the hedge up the next field to a stile where two paths are waymarked. Take the right-hand one, going past a farm to a lane and then take the turning on the left.

6 Turn left at Knowlegate in Clee Hill Road, then shortly fork right on a lane signed to Coreley and Milson. Walk along this quiet lane for nearly a mile, passing Knowle Wood, Sherbourne, Sodom Farm and Brookrow, then take a bridleway opposite Sherbourne Cottage. This delightful track climbs steadily up a valley before crossing a cattle grid to Clee Hill Common. You can choose any route you wish now, as long as you keep to access land (coloured yellowish on the map) but one suggestion is to bear right past a wooden building, cross the brook and follow a bridleway roughly northwards. After nearly half-amile turn left on a bridleway leading to the picnic site.

Your Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 203